Épisodes

  • “Prom Queens” Part 2: Tim Lindner and Ricki Richards (Episode 84)

    “Prom Queens” Part 2: Tim Lindner and Ricki Richards (Episode 84)
    Oct 23 2025
    The second half of our “Prom Queens” show marks an important No, YOU Tell It! first.

    Story coach, social media savant, and forthcoming Prom Queens: Celebrating Prom Poems and Stories by Queens Writers anthology editor, Tim Lindner, took on a new role as storyteller, trading tales with the fabulous Ricki Richards.

    Give a listen as story coach Pichchenda Bao gets to know our storytellers before they perform each other’s true prom tale.


    Ricki Richards and Tim Lindner. Photo credit Sachyn Mital.
    Stories were directed by Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons and performed live on September 17, 2025, at Grove 34 in Astoria.

    Full show program here.

    ***

    THIS IS AN OFFICIAL 2025 BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL BOOKEND EVENT.

    This project is made possible (in part) with public funds from the Queens Arts Fund, a re-grant program supported by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by New York Foundation for the Arts.

    This organization is funded in part by the Howard Gilman Foundation administered by Flushing Town Hall
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    33 min
  • “Prom Queens” Part 1: Jane Frances and Vegas K Jarrow (Episode 83)

    “Prom Queens” Part 1: Jane Frances and Vegas K Jarrow (Episode 83)
    Oct 16 2025
    Everyone has a story about going (or not going) to prom.

    For this special Bookend Event for the 20th Anniversary of the Brooklyn Book Festival, four contributors to the forthcoming Prom Queens: Celebrating Prom Poems & Stories by Queens Writers anthology from Poets of Queens stepped into each other’s prom stories.

    Before we hear the first pair, give a listen as story director Erika Iverson gets to know the storytellers a bit better.


    Jane Frances and Vegas K Jarrow. Photo credit: Sachyn Mital
    Stories were performed live on September 17, 2025, at Grove 34 in Astoria. Full show program here.

    ***

    THIS IS AN OFFICIAL 2025 BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL BOOKEND EVENT.

    This project is made possible (in part) with public funds from the Queens Arts Fund, a re-grant program supported by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by New York Foundation for the Arts.

    This organization is funded in part by the Howard Gilman Foundation administered by Flushing Town Hall
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    30 min
  • “My Place” Part 2: Ari Figueroa and Francisco Delgado (Episode 82)

    “My Place” Part 2: Ari Figueroa and Francisco Delgado (Episode 82)
    Jul 15 2025
    This special show was inspired by the Queens Name Explorer, an interactive digital map developed by Queens Memory that illuminates the historical significance behind the people’s names that grace public spaces across the borough.


    Story partners Francisco Delgado and Ari Figueroa. Photo credit: Sachyn Mital.
    Give a listen as our second set of storytellers step into the map to explore “My Place” in Queens.

    Special thanks to the Greater Astoria Historical Society for their assistance in creating the generative “My Place in Queens” workshop, where these stories first began.

    Stories

    • Take a Walk With Me, by Ari Figueroa, performed by Francisco Delgado, and directed by KJ Fitzsimmons
    • Ashes and Stars, by Francisco Delgado, performed by Ari Figueroa, and directed by KJ Fitzsimmons
    Bios

    Francisco Delgado is a CHamoru writer of fiction, poetry, and literary scholarship on contemporary Native American and Indigenous literatures. His novella, On Remembering My Friends, My First Job, and My Second-Favorite Weezer CD, won the 2024 Clay Reynold’s Novella Prize and is published with Texas Review Press. Other recent work is featured in Mānoa and Poets of Queens, vol. 2. He teaches at BMCC (CUNY) and lives in Forest Hills with his wife and their son.

    Carnie, librarian, drag queen, and teacher—these are just some of the faces Ari Figueroa has worn. But throughout their life, whether growing up in Massachusetts or evolving in New York, they have always been a writer. Everything they make, including poetry, short stories, & plays, is with the intent of connection. Ari is currently working on their first fantasy-humor novel and is always looking for more opportunities to create. They’d like to thank their fiancée Aria and their bestie Jesse, who have both been incredibly supportive but also invaluable sounding boards for Ari’s work. Thank you to Kelly Jean and No, YOU Tell It! for this new chance to share their stories.

    ***

    This project is supported by funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, Statewide Community Regrants Program (formerly the Decentralization program) with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and administered by Flushing Town Hall.

    This organization is funded in part by the Howard Gilman Foundation administered by Flushing Town Hall.
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    31 min
  • “My Place” Part 1: Mary Lannon and Wichuda “Tang” McConnell (Episode 81)

    “My Place” Part 1: Mary Lannon and Wichuda “Tang” McConnell (Episode 81)
    Jun 19 2025
    For this show, produced in collaboration with Queens Memory and the Greater Astoria Historical Society, our “My Place” storytellers came together for a community writing workshop centered on the Queens Name Explorer.

    We all generated poems and personal stories on the page inspired by the historical significance behind the people’s names that grace Queens streets, parks, monuments, and more.


    Story partners Wichuda “Tang” McConnell and Mary Lannon. Photo credit: Sachyn Mital
    Before our first set of storytellers trade the true tales they started that day, give a listen as story coach Pichchenda Bao gets to know the writer better before their story partner takes the stage.

    These stories were performed live on May 28, 2025, at Grove 34 in Astoria.

    Stories

    • My Place or Bone China, William and Mary, and Me, by Mary Lannon, performed by Wichuda “Tang” McConnell, and directed by Erika Iverson
    • Say My Name, by Wichuda “Tang” McConnell, performed by Mary Lannon, and directed by Erika Iverson
    Bios

    Mary Lannon’s unpublished novel, Tide Girl, was a finalist for the 2023 PEN\Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Her stories have appeared at Necessary Fiction, Story, New World Writing, and elsewhere. She teaches writing and women and gender studies at Nassau Community College in Long Island, NY, and lives in Kew Gardens, where she runs a reading series at the local cemetery. More information at MaryLannon.com.

    Wichuda “Tang” McConnell is a social worker, wellness coach, photographer, and storyteller. Born and raised in southern Thailand, Tang has found solace in being displaced through writing to help process the complex conflict between alienation from her native land and belonging in her adopted one—and feeling that it was taboo to feel either. Tang works as a supervisor at an agency supporting the NYC DOHMH Early Intervention Program, serving New York’s youngest with developmental delays through in-home therapies. Tang is also a wellness coach who has guided many middle-aged women to attain their best health through lifestyle modification. She presently lives in Queens, New York, with her husband and two children.

    ***

    This project is supported by funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, Statewide Community Regrants Program (formerly the Decentralization program) with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and administered by Flushing Town Hall.

    This organization is funded in part by the Howard Gilman Foundation administered by Flushing Town Hall.
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    37 min
  • “Before & After” Part 2: Carl M. Banks and Nicole Greevy (Episode 80)

    “Before & After” Part 2: Carl M. Banks and Nicole Greevy (Episode 80)
    May 2 2025
    Give a listen to the second half of our first-ever student matinee, performed at the beautiful Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre at Symphony Space on March 13, 2025. Listen to Part 1 here.

    The fantastic Najah Imani Muhammad hosted the show for a theater full of high school juniors from Global Learning Collaborative and Talent Unlimited High School to help inspire the personal stories they want to tell in their college application essays.


    Story partners Carl M. Banks and Nicole Greevy embodied the low and high notes of each other’s musical true tales, captivating our student audience with both story and song.


    Thank you to NYSCA-A.R.T./New York Creative Opportunity Fund (A Statewide Theatre Regrant Program) for helping us make our first-ever student matinee a reality. Here’s to what we hope is the first of many!

    Photo credit: Russ Rowland

    Podcast narrated by Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons.

    Stories

    • “Carl’s Lucky Dollar,” by Carl M. Banks, performed by Nicole Greevy, and directed by KJ Fitzsimmons.
    • “Of Axes and Tree Surgeons,” by Nicole Greevy, performed by Carl M. Banks, and directed by KJ Fitzsimmons.
    Bios

    Carl M. Banks is a troubadour and musical nomad. Born in the heartland of Saint Louis, Missouri, he found his rhythm in the bustling streets of New York City, now calling Astoria, Queens, his home. Traversing the country as a touring singer-songwriter, his lyrics and melodies echo the highs and lows of the American landscape while his stories touch on personal and profound narratives. He has been featured on The Moth Radio Hour and WFUV’s local artist spotlight, “New York Slice.” Carl is also an ultra-marathon runner and co-creator of Queens-based “Bridge and a Slice Half Marathon” and “HotDog Eater 50 kilometer.”

    Nicole Greevy is a playwright and actor and is thrilled to be returning to No, YOU Tell It! You can read one of her previous pieces, “Nerd: The Next Generation,” in the No, YOU Tell It! Ten-Year Anthology. She is a New York State Council of the Arts 2025 grant recipient for playwriting. If you love her dulcet tones today, you can hear her as Sheriff Rowland, and many others, on the award-winning fiction podcast Uncanny County, where she contributes as both performer and writer.
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    36 min
  • “Before & After” Part 1: Calvin S. Cato and Michele Carlo (Episode 79)

    “Before & After” Part 1: Calvin S. Cato and Michele Carlo (Episode 79)
    Apr 18 2025
    Our spring “Before & After” show was our second time performing at the beautiful Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre at Symphony Space on March 13, 2025, but it was our very first student matinee!

    Our storytellers and our special guest host, Najah Imani Muhammad, who are all No, YOU Tell It! alums, illustrated the power of storytelling for a theater full of high school juniors from Global Learning Collaborative and Talent Unlimited High School to help inspire the personal stories they want to tell in their college application essays.


    Story siblings Calvin S. Cato and Michele Carlo. Photo credit: Russ Rowland
    Give a listen to part one of our show, where Calvin S. Cato and Michele Carlo become story siblings by stepping into each other’s true tales about the best-laid plans and unforeseen accidents that send our lives in new directions.

    Thank you to NYSCA-A.R.T./New York Creative Opportunity Fund (A Statewide Theatre Regrant Program) for helping us make our first-ever student matinee a reality. Here’s to what we hope is the first of many!

    Podcast narrated by Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons.

    Stories

    • “Don’t Quit Your Day Job,” by Calvin S. Cato, performed by Michele Carlo, and directed by Tim Lindner
    • “The Accident,” by Michele Carlo, performed by Calvin S. Cato, and directed by Tim Lindner.
    Bios

    Named one of Time Out New York’s LGBTQ Comics of Color to Watch Out For, Calvin S. Cato has dazzled audiences around the world. His on-air and radio appearances include Oxygen, Netflix, Sirius XM, RISK!, WIRED Magazine, and an unaired pilot for Vice Media called Emergency Black Meeting. His comedy has been featured in numerous festivals and events, including the New York Comedy Festival, San Francisco Sketchfest, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Gotham Storytelling Festival, Brooklyn Pride, and FlameCon. In early 2021, Calvin was published in Kweendom, an anthology of essays by queer comedians and entertainers. In 2022, Calvin concluded a three-month run hosting a daily talk show on RushTix.com.

    Michele Carlo is a writer, storyteller, sometimes actor, and the author of the NYC-set memoir Fish Out of Agua: My Life on Neither Side of the Subway Tracks (Citadel/Kensington). She has appeared on podcasts, festivals, and stages across the U.S., on NPR, and the WGBH-PBS television series Stories from the Stage. For bookings and more info, go to: www.michelecarlo.com

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    35 min
  • “Left My Heart” Part 2: Zach Rothman-Hicks and Carl M. Banks (Episode 78)

    “Left My Heart” Part 2: Zach Rothman-Hicks and Carl M. Banks (Episode 78)
    Dec 5 2024
    It is fitting that this heartfelt story swap, inspired by the life and music of Astoria legend Tony Bennett, includes our first live musical performance.

    Give a listen as story coach Tim Lindner gets to know a little bit more about our two storytellers before they step into each other true tales in the second half of our “Left My Heart” show.

    Content notice: These stories are true, traded with open hearts, and this half of the show contains a depiction of suicide.

    If you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. You can learn more about suicide from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention at afsp.org.

    Carl M. Banks and Zach Rothman-Hicks

    Read about how engaging with Tony Bennet’s music and history from the Greater Astoria Historical Society archives inspired the storyteller’s modern-day true tales. The ART HEART portraits will be on display during the show, along with other surprises.

    Stories

    • HEAD, HEART, and SAN FRAN, by Zach Rothman-Hicks, performed by Carl M. Banks
    • THE HOUSE WHERE NOBODY LIVES, by Carl M. Banks, performed by Zach Rothman-Hicks
    Storyteller Bios

    Zach Rothman-Hicks is an educator and multimedia conceptual artist who creates interactive performances and projects intended to spark reflection, dialogue, and action. He has been a New York City Public School teacher since September 2009 and an Adjunct Lecturer at Hunter College since 2012 and Queens College since 2022. In April 2020, while a student in the PIMA MFA Program at Brooklyn College, he initiated Gabbing with Gays, a project that explored Emotional Intimacy in the LGBTQIA+ community. This project inspired future interactive art pieces, which were presented at the Staten Island Museum, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, the Newhouse Center, Alice Austen House, Easton Mountain, Queens Public Library, Hunters Point Park Conservancy, Chashama, Culture Lab, and the 14th Street Y.

    Carl M. Banks is a troubadour and musical nomad. Born in the heartland of Saint Louis, Missouri, he found his rhythm in the bustling streets of New York City, now calling Astoria, Queens, his home. Traversing the country as a touring singer-songwriter, his lyrics and melodies echo the highs and lows of the American landscape while his stories touch on personal and profound narratives. He has been featured on The Moth Radio Hour and on WFUV’s local artist spotlight, “New York Slice.” Carl is also an ultra-marathon runner and co-creator of Queens-based “Bridge and a Slice Half Marathon” and “HotDog Eater 50 kilometer.”
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    35 min
  • “Left My Heart” Part 1: January Yoon Cho and Catherine Kapphahn (Episode 77)

    “Left My Heart” Part 1: January Yoon Cho and Catherine Kapphahn (Episode 77)
    Nov 21 2024
    For the first time, our four storytellers participated in a Queens community “Art Heart” event about a month before the show, where all the participants generated and shared personal stories inspired by the life and music of Astoria legend Tony Bennet from the Greater Astoria Historical Society archives.

    What started that day grew into this heartfelt story swap about the intricacies of mothers, daughters, language, music, and the immigrant experience.

    Give a listen to the first half of our “Left My Heart” show performed at Grove 34 on June 5, 2024. Full program here.


    Story partners Catherine Kapphahn and January Yoon Cho

    Read this imaginary interview with Tony Bennett published in the Queens Gazette by Bob Singleton, Executive Director of the Greater Astoria Historical Society.

    Stories

    • MOTHER’S DREAM, by January Yoon Cho, performed by Catherine Kapphahn
    • LOPSIDED STAR, by Catherine Kapphahn, performed by January Yoon Cho
    Storyteller Bios

    January Yoon Cho, an interdisciplinary visual artist, works with video, photography, and drawing, intertwining themes of social conformity, feminism, and environmentalism. She has exhibited across the US and Europe. Notably, Cho’s The Walk Project received fiscal sponsorship from the NY Foundation for the Arts and grants from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund and Puffin Grant for Feminist and Environmental Art. Cho has taught at Parsons School of Design, New School University, and Hanyang University (Seoul). Originally from Seoul, Korea, she moved to the US in 1990 for her art education, earning a BFA from RISD and an MFA from Parsons.

    Catherine Kapphahn is a writer, educator, storyteller, and speaker. Her memoir Immigrant Daughter: Stories You Never Told Mereceived The Center for Fiction’s Christopher Doheny Award and was published by Audible. Her manuscript Miseducation of a Dyslexic Girl: a Memoir in Poems and Classrooms was recently long-listed for the Steel Toe Books Poetry Award. Catherine received grants from the Queens Council on the Arts and City Artist Corps. Her writing has appeared in Queensbound, Motherwell Magazine, Croatia Week, Newtown Literary, the Feminist Press Anthology This is the Way We Say Goodbye, Astoria Life, and CURE Magazine. Catherine is an adjunct lecturer at City University of New York at Lehman College in the Bronx, where her students’ stories inspire her. Catherine is also a yoga teacher. She grew up near the mountains in Colorado and now lives between two bridges in Queens, New York, with her husband and two sons.
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    41 min